Steve Albini Goes Off on Sonic Youth

Indie curmudgeon criticizes SY's 1990s mainstream move.

Photo by Ryan Muir

You gotta give it to veteran producer and former Big Black/current Shellac frontman Steve Albini-- dude is indie as fuck. So indie, in fact, that he recently told GQ that he considers Sonic Youth a "bad influence" (!) for signing with major label Geffen in 1990, a choice Abini thinks they "should be embarrassed about." (Sonic Youth broke ties with Geffen around 2008 and their latest LP, The Eternal, came out on indie Matador.)

It seems relevant to note that two of Albini's most notable engineering credits are Nirvana's In Utero and PJ Harvey's Rid of Me-- both of which came out on major labels. Perhaps he never cashed those checks?

Click on for Albini's full analysis-- which actually might be harsher than those pull quotes would let on:

On Sonic Youth's decision to sign with Geffen: "I don't know the exact circumstances of Sonic Youth's decision, so I'm not comfortable saying they did it wrong. But a lot of the things they were involved with as part of the mainstream were distasteful to me. And a lot of the things that happened as a direct result of their association with the mainstream music industry gave credibility to some of the nonsense notions that hover around the star-making machinery. A lot of that stuff was offensive to me and I saw it as a sellout and a corruption of a perfectly valid, well-oiled music scene. Sonic Youth chose to abandon it in order to become a modestly successful mainstream band-- as opposed to being a quite successful independent band that could have used their resources and influence to extend that end of the culture. They chose to join the mainstream culture and become a foot soldier for that culture's encroachment into my neck of the woods by acting as scouts. I thought it was crass and I thought it reflected poorly on them. I still consider them friends and their music has its own integrity, but that kind of behavior-- I can't say that I think it's not embarrassing for them. I think they should be embarrassed about it."

He goes on (really!): "I think what they did was take a lot of people who didn't have aspirations or ambitions and encouraged them to be part of the mainstream music industry. They validated the fleeting notions that these kids had that they might one day be rock stars. And then they participated in inducing a lot of them to make very stupid career moves. That was a period where the music scene got quite ugly-- there were a lot of parasitic people involved like lawyers and managers. There were people who were making a living on the backs of bands, who were doing all the work. Had Sonic Youth not done what they did I don't know what would have happened-- the alternative history game is kind of silly. But I think it cheapened music quite a bit. It made music culture kind of empty and ugly and was generally a kind of bad influence."

As an amazing end note, GQ threw some prime red meat in the famously t-shirt-and-jeans-wearing producer's direction with the question "How would you describe your fashion?" His answer lived up: "I think fashion is repulsive. The whole idea that someone else can make clothing that is supposed to be in style and make other people look good is ridiculous. It sickens me to think that there is an industry that plays to the low self-esteem of the general public. I would like the fashion industry to collapse. I think it plays to the most superficial, most insecure parts of human nature. I hope GQ as a magazine fails. I hope that all of these people who make a living by looking pretty are eventually made destitute or forced to do something of substance. At least pornography has a function."